Survive We Shall
by Creative Heart 1997
Summary: When Kat finds herself in the middle of the Apocalypse she learns to survive quickly. But in a world where the dead walk and the living kill for fun surviving is hard, living is harder, keeping those you care about alive is the hardest of all. But no one can survive alone. As Kat fights her way towards DC to her brother, she must learn to trust, to love, and to live again.
1. What Tomorrow Brings

Disclaimer: All recognizable Characters, places, and plots belong to those who own the copyright for Walking Dead and Criminal Minds respectfully such as AMC and Robert Kirkman, I do not know all their names.

All new characters such as Kat, The Takers, and Kat's original group belong to me. Please do not use them or my storyline without my permission.

Warnings:

This story will contain foul language, nudity, sexual content, graphic violence, mentions of sexual assault, death, abuse, mentions of domestic abuse, partial depictions of sexual assault, depictions of domestic abuse, torture, suicide, depictions of suicidal thoughts, self-harm, PTSD, flash backs and much more.

Each Chapter will have its own trigger warnings directly below this warning at the start please use these to protect yourself while you read. If there are any issues regarding this please PM me.

Standing Warnings for All Chapters: (These Warnings are used so frequently it is pointless to add them by specific chapter.

Gore, Graphic Violence, Death, Swearing

Chapter Warnings:

-See Standing Warnings Above-

AN:

Hey, Everyone! Welcome to my new story. I know a lot of people have been waiting for updates on my other Walking Dead Story Hope Is Stronger Than Fear. I will be updating it with a few chapters soon and an important announcement in regards to the story, so if you're a fan of that keep a look out for that. But in the meantime I'm back with a new story I've been working on for a few months now.

I started working on this story not long after season nine of Walking Dead started airing in October 2018. This story is technically a crossover between Walking Dead and Criminal Minds but as the Criminal Minds characters do not actually come in besides a phone call in this chapter and mentions for at least the first 50 + chapters I will be posting this in the Walking Dead section for now.

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long and haven't posted in a while. I had to deal with a lot of health issues from October through January; I'm finally recovering so I'm getting more of a chance to write.

This story is prewritten through chapter 7 and I will be posting two chapters a week for the time being. The story is structured into chapters with specific themes and story beats. Every chapter will start and end with a quote like an episode of Criminal Minds does.

With that all out of the way, enjoy the show!

Survive We Shall

Season One

Episode 01: What Tomorrow Brings

-Line Break-

"And that's the thing. The day before your whole life changes, _forever_, it feels just like any other day." – Unknown

Kat hummed as she walked around her kitchen making her dinner, roast beef, potatoes, onions, and gravy. Not the healthiest meal, but one of her favorites. For desert a slice of cheesecake. She'd spent the day watching shows on Netflix while working on her next book; the fourth and final instalment of the Silver Star Chronicles.

'How's the book coming?' Kat glances at her phone reading the text from her older brother.

'Good, how's the case?'

'Finished, we're headed back to DC now. I can't wait to sleep.' Kat snorts at the sleeping emoji her brother adds to the end of the text. She'd recently convinced him to get a smart phone and he'd been attempting to use them whenever possible ever since.

'Sleep well, Spence.' She sends him a heart emoji and gets back to her food. Spencer lived in DC and worked for the FBI as a criminal profiler, a member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit or BAU. He'd been working there for over thirteen years now, over half of Kat's life. She finishes her dinner settling in to finish bingeing Merlin again.

Around six in the morning the ringing of her phone woke her. Kat blinks and rolls over with a groan ignoring the phone for a moment before sighing and picking it up.

"Hello?"

"Kat? Something's happening, something bad. I need you to get to DC, as soon as you can. Pack what you want; you may not be home for a very long time. Please catch the next flight out!" Spencer's terrified voice begs. Kat sits up in her bed putting her glasses on and glancing at her clock.

"Spencer what's going on?"

"I'll explain when you get here, just… get here."

"Okay, I'll catch the next flight." Kat agrees the fear in her brother's voice scaring her. Spencer Reid did not scare easily, over a decade in the job he had made sure of that. So for him to sound so terrified was a bad sign.

"Call me when you land, one of the team will pick you up. Oh, bring your gun. I love you, Katrina."

"I love your too, Spencer, see you in a few hours." Kat hangs up the phone pausing to take a breath looking around her room. She takes a breath and stands rushing to pack. She grabs a duffle bag stuffing her gun and her ammo in it, she pauses before grabbing her bow locking it in its case and stuffing it and her arrows in her duffle bag as well. If she needed her gun it may come in handy, who knows, plus if she wasn't coming back she'd want it with her. Rossi would let her practice on his property like when she was a teenager she was sure. She adds her pocket knife and Swiss army knives to the bag before dropping it by the top of the stairs.

Next was her star trek messenger bag, her laptop, IPod, Nintendo Switch, IPad, and kindle went in there along with the cords, her spare headphones, and her phone cord. She added her sketch books, pencils, and notebooks. Her backpack was next, her favorite pictures being pulled from the walls and taken from their frames to be placed in a Ziploc baggy inside along with her favorite photo album, a Ziploc full of jewelry from her mom or members of Spencer's team growing up, a small black stuffed cat Spencer had given her for her fifth birthday named Midnight, her high school diploma and Bachelor's degree in creative writing, and finally the first printed copies of each of her books, seven in total.

Last was her suit case where she tossed a few pairs of shoes, all her clean socks, underwear, and bras. A few jackets, a few pairs of jeans, shorts, t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, and tank tops. She tossed in her Harry Potter, Twilight, and Edgar Allen Poe books. Lastly she added her first aid kit, and her fifteen pairs of glasses. Kat had taken to owning a lot of different styles of glasses to go with her different outfits, something she'd picked up from Penelope a women who worked with her brother who'd been like an older sister to her since she'd met her.

Kat pulls out her phone booking the next flight leaving for DC, frowning when the only one available before noon had a layover in Texas. She shakes her head booking the first class ticket and calling a cab. The last thing she wanted to do was leave her truck in airport parking if she didn't know how long she'd be gone. It being the middle of the week SeaTac was surprisingly more busy than normal; the place was packed with people. Kat quickly got her boarding pass moving to check her bags, having flown with her gun enough times to know the drill.

Kat got in line. After almost twenty minutes the woman checking bags took a call then shut down her station. Kat watched in confusion as all the terminal's shut down. People began whispering around her.

"Attention the state of Washington has just entered a state of emergency. Bags are no longer being checked, if we call your flight number please move to the front and you will be taken to your plane to board; please take your luggage with you. Security measures are being lifted. Thank you."

"What the fuck?" Kat mutters as people around her begin to panic.

"Flight 354 to New York." Kat watches as people join a worried looking flight attendant who leads them away a few minutes later. "Flight 356 to DC with layover in Houston?" Kat glances at her boarding pass then approaches the flight attendant who glances at her pass before nodding.

"Uh, I have a gun and permit to carry. I normally check it, what do I do now?" Kat asks her before they head out.

"It doesn't matter, keep it on you. We've been told to just get everyone on the plane and out. The military showed up twenty minutes ago giving orders, apparently the whole country is under martial law." The woman says as she begins leading Kat and around twenty others to their boarding gate. Kat shares a worried look with those around her. Before long they are all standing outside the gate, two soldiers stand by the doors asking people questions as they board, something about bites?

"Ma'am has anyone attacked and or bitten or scratched you in the past twenty four hours?" Kat raises an eyebrow.

"No… What's going on?"

"Please board the plane, Ma'am." The soldier won't look her in the eye, though she catches a look of fear before he looks away. Kat sighs but boards taking her seat. She puts her suitcase on the floor in front of the seat beside hers; knowing it won't fit in the overhead or it was unlikely too and it certainly wouldn't fit under the seat. She puts her messenger bag, backpack, and duffle bag on the seat with her purse on top. Kat leans her head into the aisle counting around thirty people seated in the normal section; two other people were seated in first class with her so far. Ten more people board before the doors are closed. Their where only around forty passengers it seemed, on a jet that would normally fit at least a hundred and fifty, probably more.

"Attention passengers this is your captain speaking, please take your seats and prepare for takeoff, safety procedures will be explained once we are at cruising altitude, thank you." Kat buckles her belt shooting a quick text to Spencer as they taxi onto the runway.

'On plane, something is up, bags where not checked, they had me board with my luggage over an hour before the flight was to take off. They had me board without checking my gun even after I told them about it! They said something about martial law and a state of emergency. What is going on? We're taking off without safety warnings, there where soldiers asking us if we'd been bitten or scratched as we boarded. I'll text you once I have Wi-Fi and can.'

Kat sits back in her seat staring out the window as they reach the runway; she leans over her bags to watch out the window as they take off. As they climb her view of the city widens, her stomach drops as she sees pillars of smoke rising from downtown, and what appear to be military helicopters flying that way. What the fuck was happening? Where they under attack?

"Attention passengers this is your captain speaking, we have now reached cruising altitude, we should be reaching Houston in approximately four hours. Flight attendants will be by with drinks after they finish their safety instructions. Thank you for flying Alaska." Kat shakes her head, why wasn't anyone telling them anything?

Three hours later a high pitched scream in the back of the plane dragged her attention away from her book. Kat spins around in her seat looking down her aisle along with most of the planes passengers, near the back of the plane two people had jumped up and pulled a woman from her seat. Kat unbuckles sprinting down the aisle to see a woman with what appeared to be a large bite out of the side of her shoulder. A deep guttural growling could be heard from her seat now that she was no longer screaming.

Suddenly the woman tore herself from the men and dived back into the seat a moment later she was sitting on the floor of the aisle holding a small child in her arms as he struggled. The boy was clawing at his mother and clearly attempting to bite her again, it took Kat a moment to realize the inhuman growling was coming from the boy. One of the men leaned down to tried to pull the boy back; the boy turned his head to look at the man, Kat catching the blood smeared around the boy's mouth even from where she was.

"What the fuck!" The man attempts to jump back as the boy suddenly latches onto his arm and bites down viciously, tearing a chunk of skin and muscle from his arm, chewing then swallowing. Kat stumbles back in horror as people quickly back away from the boy and the now screaming man. The woman is trying to yell over the man, she pulls the boy back into her arms, trying to restrain him.

A few seconds later the mother is dragged back from the child from behind by another passenger. As soon as she losses her grip the boy is up and stumbling down the aisle towards a woman who was leaning around the edge of her seat to look. She moves to pull back just as the boy reaches her sinking his teeth into her neck, her garbled scream joining the other horrified screams and yelling throughout the plane.

The screams all cut off as if muted when the deafening crack of gunshot has all eyes moving from the boy to a man standing behind the mother in the aisle. Kat's eyes flicker back to the boy… or more correctly the body of the boy lying only around fifteen feet in front of her. The woman he'd attacked was hanging out of her seat motionless, blood dripping onto the boy's corpse.

"NO! No, not my baby, no!" The mother shrieks. The man holding her back lets her go stumbling into the middle row of seats. The man with the gun lowers it looking a bit ill.

"I'm Jacob Moore, air marshal." He holds up his credentials, not that Kat could read them from where she was. "I'm sorry Ma'am but your boy was infected… I didn't have a choice."

"Infected?" A man standing in the other aisle of the plane asks looking confused.

"You… You killed my boy… my Bradley…" The mother shouts stumbling to her feet towards Moore.

"How many of you saw the news this morning?" Three hands go up. Moore sighs running a hand through his hair. "There's some kind of virus going around, once infected people die… they die and then they come back… they come back from the dead and eat people… like zombies, but real." He explains his face completely serious.

"Is that why the soldiers were asking us about bites?" A woman asks fearfully, a young toddler clutched in her arms.

"Yes."

"You killed my boy!" The mother had approached Moore without anyone really noticing, or if they had they hadn't said anything. She suddenly punches him dead in the face; snatching his gun from his belt she aims it at him as she backs herself into the row of seats behind her until her back hits the window.

"Ma'am he was already dead, please drop the gun." Moore pleads from his spot on the ground slowly standing up his hands held in front of him as blood trickles down his face. The woman glares at him then presses the gun against the plane window. Kat freezes in place as her eyes widen.

"Your all with him, he killed my boy but your listening to him." She mutters crazily. If she pulled that trigger the plane would depressurize and they would all die.

"Ma'am please, you'll kill us all, yourself included." Moore pleads his eyes wide. Kat backs down the aisle until she reaches her seat, she glances at her stuff her eyes landing on her duffle bag… she had good aim… maybe? Kat slides into her seat and slips her gun from her duffle bag quickly checking it was loaded before standing up and slowly moving down the aisle of the plane. The woman was muttering to herself now, her finger firmly on the trigger. Kat keeps the gun at her side as she gets closer. She stops a few feet from the kid's body not willing to get too close.

Kat grabs a magazine from the seat beside her and waves it to get Moore's attention he glances at her. She moves the gun so he can see it and nods to the woman. Moore stares at her for a moment then nods.

"If you don't drop the gun we won't have a choice but to hurt you Ma'am." Kat takes a breath raising the gun as the woman turns to look at Moore as he talks. She flicks off the safety and lines up the shot.

"I'll kill all of you! You killed my Bradley. Mommy's coming baby." She raises the gun to the window again. Kat pulls the trigger. The woman slumps to the ground, blood spraying the wall and seats behind her. Moore quickly moves forward retrieving his gun as people scream. Kat turns back on her safety lowering her gun as she stares at it… she just killed a woman.

"Thank you, Miss, what's your name?" Moore approaches her slowly; he steps over the boy placing a hand over hers on her gun. Kat looks up at his face blinking the world seeming to disappear around her, her vision tunneling to focus only on him and the gun in her hand.

"Kat, er Katrina Reid."

"You did well, Kat. Why don't we sit down, alright?" Moore takes the gun from her hand and leads her back to her seat… how did he know which was her seat? "Kat you need to breathe slower, follow my breathes… Kat?" Moore said something more but she couldn't make it out as the world spun around her suddenly going dark.

-Line Break-

Kat blinked, her eyes slowly adjusting to the light around her. Someone was patting her cheek; her eyes focus the memories of the last ten minutes coming back to her all at once. Moore smiles as she blinks up at him.

"Welcome back, do you know where you are?" Kat nods sitting up straighter and looking around. She can hear people crying and talking throughout the plane. The two other first class passengers are both standing peering over at her from the middle row of seats.

"I shot someone…" Kat whispers feeling like she was going to be sick.

"You saved us." A man with greying silvery short hair from first class speaks up.

"You did." Moore agrees.

"Here you are Ma'am." A flight attendant hands her a glass of water shakily. Kat takes it with a shaky nod of her own.

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

"My brothers taught me… they're FBI agents…" Kat says quietly.

"I'm going to give you this back, please put it away." Moore hands her, her gun. Kat puts it in her duffle bag zipping it closed.

"Attention passengers, we would like to ask everyone in economy class in seats A and B to please move to seats behind row twenty and in front of row fifteen. Thank you. Please follow Air Marshal Moore and the Flight Attendants orders; we will hopefully be landing soon." The captain comes on the intercom.

"I'm going to go calm people down." Moore pats her arm giving a nod to the other two people in first class before moving into the back of the plane. Kat sits in her seat staring at the seat in front of her sipping the water to keep from puking.

"Attention passengers, I'm sorry to say we will not be landing in Houston… it seems the airport is not responding. We will be continuing directly to DC." Kat turns to look at the silver haired man a few seats away from her.

"That can't be good." He mutters with a shake of his head. Kat shakes her head mutely. The plane should hold enough fuel to make it to DC… but that was only if they'd been fully fueled before taking off, and with their rush to send planes out the chances of that where slim. Kat pulls out her phone connecting to the inflight Wi-Fi. A strange sound behind her catches her attention before she can dial. She turns around in her seat her face paling as she sees the woman the boy had bitten moving. The same guttural growls the boy had been making issuing from her lips as she attempts to reach for a woman a few seats in front of hers.

"Moore!" Kat yells unbuckling quickly and jumping to her feet. Moore quickly runs into the first class slipping between the seats to move to her aisle from the other one.

"What? What is it?" Kat points at the woman… or corpse. Its eyes where clouded, face pale from the blood lose from having the boy biting out its neck.

"Oh shit, she was bit. Does anyone have a knife?" He calls looking around. Kat nods turning and quickly pulling her pocket knife from her bag and handing it to him.

"How many weapons do you have?"

"Five… gun, pocket knife, bow, and two Swiss army knives." Kat answers with a shrug. "My brother called me panicked and said to get to DC that something was happening and to bring my gun… my brother doesn't panic. So I brought my gun… plus some." Kat was surprised by how calm she felt… she wasn't sure if she was going back into shock or if her emotions where too overloaded at that point to work or what, but despite her fear she was calming down.

"Well we're all lucky you came prepared." Moore snorts and moves swiftly up to the corpse. It grabs at his clothing while he grabs the top of its head forcing it's face down against the armrest while he stabs it in the back of the head at the base of the skull. The corpse slumps down, dead… again.

"The mother was bitten too… Will she… turn?" Kat asks not completely sure what word to use.

"No you shot her in the head… what I saw on TV seemed to suggest that if you kill the brain these things stay dead." Moore cleans off the knife with the woman's shirt before handing it back to her. Kat stares at it before nodding slowly and putting it back in her bag. Kat sits back down picking back up her phone she quickly dials Spencer's number.

"Hello? Kat?"

"Spencer, what the fuck is going on? The air marshal said there is some kind of virus going around… It kills people then they come back to life as some kind of fucked up zombie?"

"He's right." Spencer says quietly his voice resigned.

"I know he is! A kid bit a woman's neck out; she just came back to fucking life!" Kat snaps.

"What? Are you okay, did you get bit?" Spencer asks franticly.

"Is that Kat? Why are you asking her that? What's happening, Reid?" Kat can hear Morgan, one of her brother's coworkers and their unofficial older brother ask.

"No, I… I'm okay. We dealt with it… but the boy's mother she lost it when Moore had to shoot him… She… she took his gun and was threatening to kill us… I." Kat falls silent taking a breath. "She aimed it at the window; she would have killed everyone on board. I had to shoot her, Spence… I shot her, I killed someone."

"Oh god…" Spencer whispers clearly to himself, he takes a shaky breath. "Katrina listen to me, you did what you had to do. Okay? You didn't have a choice. It will be okay."

"I… I know. But Spence what is this?" Kat asks blinking back tears as she tries to hold it together. She just wanted to be in DC already, to hug her big brother and pretend none of this had happened.

"We don't know. How long until you land?"

"I don't know we took off early then we were supposed to land for a layover in Houston but the pilot said the airport wasn't responding so we're coming straight to DC. I'm guessing at least two to four hours."

"The airport wasn't responding?" Spencer asks his voice tense.

"That's what he said…" Kat frowns why hadn't it responded… oh. It was gone; the airport was probably over run by those… those things. "Spence, how bad is this thing?"

"It's everywhere, all over the world. We've just been told to go home or to the refugee center the military is setting up downtown. Apparently both Seattle and New York have already been overrun."

"Seattle? That's what the smoke was then… Chaos as those… things took over."

"Probably." Kat frowns as Spencer's voice crackles.

"Spence? Your breaking up."

"I'm losing signal… the cell towers have been being over loaded… I'm… lose you. When you land get to Rossi's." Spencer's voice gets more and more staticky as he talks.

"Spence? Spencer?"

"Get to Rossi's, I love you…"

"I love you too." Kat says franticly as the connection gets worse.

"Get… Rossi's." The call goes dead.

"Spencer? Spencer?" Kat whispers desperately into the phone. She closes her eyes leaning her head against the seat in front of her. Get to Rossi's… Get to Rossi's… She could do that, couldn't she?

"Attention passengers please return to your seats and buckle up. We seem to be running low on fuel and will be making an emergency landing. Please prepare." Kat bites her lip buckling in and wrapping the seat beside hers buckle through the handles of her bags hopefully to keep them from flying around and hitting her if things got too bumpy.

Kat grips the arms of her seat as she stares out the plane window as they begin a rapid decent. Trees grow bigger as they fly very close over them until finally they touch down with a lot of jerks and bumps before finally coming to a stop in what appears to be a field.

"We have landed safely somewhere in Georgia. Please remain seated. We will come and get you and your belongings row by row as soon as the emergency slide is in place." Kat takes a shaky breath loosening her grip on the seat arms. She gathers her stuff, not planning to leave her stuff behind.

"Ma'am your next. Please bring your stuff and make your way to where the captain is waiting." The flight attendant who brought her water before motions her to go to the door. Kat makes her way over there.

"You're the one who shot the woman who had the gun right?" The captain asks. Kat nods. "Thank you. We will slide your luggage down to my co-pilot first then you, alright?"

"Okay." Kat slides one bag at a time down the slide then sits at the edge; she takes a breath and slides down, grateful for the helping hand of the co-pilot as she reaches the bottom. She takes her bags and moves to the side looking around. There was no way she was going to be able to lug all these bags all the way from middle of nowhere Georgia to DC.

Within an hour the plane was empty, Moore and a few flight attendants lowering what food, water, blankets, pillows, and other useful items they found while searching the plane down before coming down themselves.

"Now what do we do?" Someone yells.

"Survive?" Moore suggests with a shrug.

"Whatever this is, it's everywhere." Kat speaks up deciding to share what Spencer told her with the others. "They're setting up a refugee center in downtown DC. It's a ways but if we can make it there we may be safe? Or safe-ish…" Kat shakes her head with a frown.

"And how do you know that?" A woman asks in a snide tone.

"My brother is an FBI agent he lives in DC. I talked to him a few hours ago, he said this virus is everywhere all over the world. They sent the agents home or to the center." Kat explains glaring at the woman.

"Why should we listen to the murderer?" One man yells. Kat frowns and shakes her head turning to grab her bags.

"She saved all our lives so you can shut your mouth!" Silver haired guy speaks up.

"She shouldn't have even had a gun on board!" A woman retorts.

"I normally check it, as is the law, but they told me to just get on just like they did you, I told them I had it." Kat snaps.

"Enough! Look we're on our own. Help isn't coming. So we need to get moving. If there is a center in DC then there may be one in Atlanta. We should head there." The co-pilot suggests. A few people nod.

"My brother said both Seattle and New York where overrun who's to say Atlanta isn't either? I think DC is our best shot." Kat argues.

"And how exactly do you propose we get to DC? Walk?" Another man asks.

"Yeah if we have to, just like how we'd get to Atlanta." Kat points out.

"I agree with Kat, we should head to DC." Moore sides with her.

"Well I ain't going anywhere, when our plane doesn't show up someone will come looking." One woman says sitting down, a few people follow suit.

"How about we split into groups, those going to Atlanta will go with Jeffery." The captain motions to the co-pilot. "Those going to DC can go with me, Moore, and Kat. And those who want to stay can?" People nod seemingly liking that plan.

"We'll split the food and water evenly into three groups then split into groups." Jeffery says people nod. The flight attendants, Jeffery, and the captain split up the food. The captain bringing a bag full over to Kat and Moore. Jeffery gives a bag to the people who clearly have decided to stay and takes the third with him.

"Okay split into your groups." Silver hair guy and the other first class passenger join Kat's group along with three of the five flight attendants, the woman with the toddler, a teenager and a young girl, and two others.

"Why don't we all start with introducing ourselves?" The captain suggests. "I'm Daniel Blake."

"Jacob Moore."

"Katrina Reid, most people call me Kat."

"Johnathon Thomas, call me Tom." Silver hair says.

"Mia Jones." The flight attendant who gave Kat the glass of water speaks up.

"Olivia Charles."

"Tiffany Dunge." The other two flight attendants speak up.

"Tommy Myers." The other man from first class says.

"Matilda June, people call me Tilly, this is Lillian." The woman with a toddler speaks up introducing the little girl in her arms.

"I'm John Francis; this is my sister Taylor Francis." The teen introduces himself and the little girl.

"Isabella Johnson."

"Marcus Brown." Kat surveys their group looking each person over closely.

Daniel had short neatly cut black hair with a few streaks of grey, he was around fifty years old, with pale skin, and looked to be biracial half white, half Asian, around Kat's height. Moore was younger nearer her age, maybe a few years older in his early thirties, he had curly brown hair cut short, inquisitive brown eyes, and pale skin with freckles sprinkled across his face, he was tall and lanky, probably over six foot, he reminded her of Spencer. Tom had silvery greying hair a silver beard with a slight mustache and a scar on his right cheek, tall about six foot.

Mia had blonde hair, was shorter then Kat by an inch or two maybe five-five. Olivia had black very curly hair held close to her head by a tight bun, she was African American with a very dark complexion, a few freckles along her nose, she was around Kat's height. Tiffany was Asian, very short around five foot with black long hair held in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. Tommy had bright red carrot orange hair, freckles across his face, and startling blue eyes, he was tall and lanky at around 6 foot.

Tilly was young around Kat's age, maybe a year older so around twenty-eight. She had dark brown hair like Kat's and emerald green eyes; she was Kat's height almost exactly so about five-seven. Lillian looked like her mom with curly brown hair pulled back into two pigtails she was about three with the same emerald green eyes.

John was pale, around five-ten, clearly about sixteen or seventeen years old, he had long black hair that reached just past his shoulders, an earring in his left ear. Taylor had long wavy golden blonde hair pulled back in a braid like Kat's, she had bright blue eyes and seemed to be around ten or eleven.

Isabella was a bottle blonde with brown roots just starting to show, she was pale with hazel eyes, and was chewing gum. Marcus was the tallest well over six foot Kat guessed around six-five, he had brood shoulders, dark skin, and a shaved head.

"Let's see if we can find a house or road so we can figure out where we are and maybe find a map." Daniel suggests. They all grab their bags and follow him. Kat lugs her bags after him, she was going to have to figure out a better solution to carrying her stuff and soon if she was going to make it to DC.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." – Winston Churchill

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed! I'm looking forward to working on this story for a long time. I have plans to continue this far into the future possibly even reaching the time period the show is currently set it. Let me know what you think by leaving a review! (I have a review Policy at the end of each chapter I post.) Subscribe to be notified when a new chapter is posted or to be notified when I post a new story or update my other current stories!

Review Policy:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please **no flames**. I am fine with **constructive criticism**; but please leave it in a **polite** manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to **improve**, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

Any kind of review that is nice even a Good Chapter or a smiley face is appreciated!

– Kat


	2. Survive Alone?

Disclaimer: All recognizable Characters, places, and plots belong to those who own the copyright for Walking Dead and Criminal Minds respectfully such as AMC and Robert Kirkman, I do not know all their names.

All new characters such as Kat, The Takers, and Kat's original group belong to me. Please do not use them or my storyline without my permission.

Warnings:

This story will contain foul language, nudity, sexual content, graphic violence, mentions of sexual assault, death, abuse, mentions of domestic abuse, partial depictions of sexual assault, depictions of domestic abuse, torture, suicide, depictions of suicidal thoughts, self-harm, PTSD, flash backs and much more.

Each Chapter will have its own trigger warnings directly below this warning at the start please use these to protect yourself while you read. If there are any issues regarding this please PM me.

Standing Warnings for All Chapters: (These Warnings are used so frequently it is pointless to add them by specific chapter.

Gore, Graphic Violence, Death, Swearing

Chapter Warnings:

Mentions of Sexual Assault

AN:

As I said in the last chapter I will be posting two Chapters a week as I tend to write two chapters at a time if I have the option. Enjoy!

Survive We Shall

Season One

Episode 02: Survive Alone?

-Line Break-

"And in the end all I learned was how to be strong alone." – Unknown

Kat stopped in her tracks a deep frown on her face. For the millionth time she'd gone in a circle. She shakes her head her eyes locked on that god forsaken farm house. Maybe if they'd just kept going, if they'd never stopped there, maybe then she wouldn't be alone right now?

"Hey! It's her!" Kat spins on her heal her eyes widening as seven men race towards her across a field. Eddie a man in his late fifties with a shaved head and a swastika tattooed on his arm led the charge. Kat recognized Brian and Philip as well, the other four men she'd seen a hundred times before but didn't know the names of. Kat spins on her heel charging back into the forest, veering to the side as she see's walkers in front of her. She couldn't get caught… not again.

"Shoot that bitch!" A man's voice calls, a second later a bullet wizzes past Kat's ear. She ducks and dodges as she runs being sure to move back and forth as she does no sense in giving them a predictable target. Up ahead she could see a small herd of walkers, perfect she heads directly towards them knife up and ready stabbing the first one she comes too in the top of its head using her momentum to drive the knife in before dragging it out as she shoves the body into the next closest walker. She ducks down sprinting quickly through the slow moving bodies. Once on the other side she keeps up her pace, it isn't long before she hears the gunshots and screams behind her as the men run into the herd.

Kat had been running for over half an hour slowing only when the bullets stopped whizzing by her, speeding up if they started again. Kat glances behind her grimacing as she sees the five living men gaining on her, two clearly having been taken down by the herd. A small scream rips from her as her foot suddenly catches on something pitching her forward tumbling down a small hill.

"Hello again, Miss. Kat. You know we're all damn tired of these games. I think it's time we ended them, don't you agree?" Brian, a man with long blonde hair only a few years older than Kat with a missing front tooth and a long scar under his left eye Kat had given him a few months before bends over her with a wicked grin. Kat gasps for breath her eyes wide as she stares up at the men. Her hand tightens on her gun.

"Nu uh. That ain't happening." Eddie slams his boot down on her arm. Kat glares up at him biting the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming. She would not give these bastards the pleasure. Eddie bends down taking the gun from her belt before stepping back for a second. He stares down at her with a look of pure hatred. "Should've killed you with the other bitch." He swings is foot back bringing it back against her side. Kat gasps out as searing pain flashes through her side.

"We should have some fun before we kill her." Phillip grins licking his lips, his light brown mullet blowing in the breeze.

"I like that…" One of the other men begins to say before a crossbow bolt slams into his eye.

"What the fu…" Brian shouts stepping back, a gunshot ringing out as he goes down.

"Brian!" The last unknown man begins to speak before a different gunshot sounds blood splattering the trees around them. Kat scrambles to her feet she grabs her knife from her belt.

"You're not going anywhere, Bitch." Eddie growls stalking towards her. Kat brings her arm back aiming her hunting knife for his chest and throws it; the knife buries itself in Eddie's neck. Not what she was going for, but it would work. Eddie stumbles to the ground pulling the knife out and falling face first in the leaves blood pooling around him in seconds.

"You!" Phillip lunges at her before Kat can move; seconds before he can grab her, a crossbow bolt slams into his head. Kat scrambles forward grabbing her knife from where Eddie dropped it and turning on her heel to stand up, looking around for whoever had been shooting.

"You alright?" Kat turns her eyes locking on three men as they approach her cautiously. The man who spoke had a short brown beard, with brown wavy hair; he held a gun in one hand pointed at the ground. Next to him was an Asian man, younger than her, maybe in his early twenties, a gun also clutched in his hands. About a foot behind the first guy was a man with a crossbow, chin length brown hair hanging limply, he wore a leather vest. "Ma'am?" The first man says again coming to a stop when he notices her knife.

"Who are you?" Kat asks her voice tense her knife clutched tightly in her right hand.

"My names Rick Grimes, this is Glenn," He motions to the Asian man, "and Daryl." He motions to the other man. "What's your name?" Kat narrows her eyes, why had these men helped her? She'd never seen them with the Takers, but then again there were at least sixty of them when they first got her and around forty last she saw… well thirty-three now. But would they really kill their own people? She'd seen them do it before. Kat's eyes scan over Rick; he is watching her with a sad look in his eyes.

"Why'd you help me?" Kat asks her brown eyes locking with Ricks, confusion clear in her tone. Rick shares a look with Glenn and Daryl frowning.

"It looked like you needed it." Rick says simply. Kat narrows her eyes.

"What's your angle here? You trying to earn points with Carlton or some shit? Bring me back yourselves?" The men share a confused look before turning back to her.

"We don't know who this Carlton is, but we can assure you we're not with him." Rick says holstering his gun and holding up his hands as if talking to a spooked animal. Glenn lowers his gun with shaky hands slipping it into its holster, his eyes locked on Brian's dead body looking like he's going to be sick. Daryl lowers the crossbow but doesn't put it away.

"He your first kill or something?" Kat asks looking at Glenn and nodding to Brian. Glenn looks surprised by her question but nods shakily. There was no way these three where Takers, not with how he's acting. "That's never easy, thank you though." Kat says slowly holstering her knife keeping her hand on the hilt. It wouldn't do much good against Daryl's crossbow anyways.

"Uh, your welcome." Glenn says hesitantly, he looks to Rick who nods motioning for him to take over. "We have a group, men, women, children, fences if you're interested?" Kat raises an eyebrow eyes flickering between the hesitant young man and the two older men.

"You'd just offer me a place with your group?"

"Well you have to answer three questions first, but yeah." Glenn nods.

"Ask away." Kat crosses her arms.

"How many walkers have you killed?" Kat snorts shaking her head.

"I don't know just let me check my kill count. A lot." She shrugs she thinks she can see Daryl smirk at her snide answer.

"How many people have you killed?" Kat frowns looking down at the ground as she thinks, this was where they'd either shoot her or tell her to fuck off.

"I don't know around twenty to thirty." Kat answers honestly her eyes flickering back to theirs. A look of shock ripples through the men as they process her answer. Daryl raises his crossbow eyes now narrowed. Rick's hand moves to his gun but he doesn't pull it. Glenn is just staring at her with wide eyes.

"Why?" He asks his voice tense. Huh, well they hadn't shot her yet, so that must be a good sign.

"Most of them where Takers." She motions to the men on the ground. "I've killed a lot of them escaping each time they catch back up with me. I have no clue how many but considering the last time I was in their camp I counted around forty of them, while they had sixty the first time, I've taken out at least twenty. I have no idea how many I killed last time." Kat shrugs her voice bitter.

"And anyone else?" Rick asks. "You said most."

"I shot a woman in my old group after she was bit." Kat scowls thinking back to Tiffany. "And a lady who was on the plane I was on when this all went down."

"You were on a plane when this started?" Glenn asks eyes wide. "And you shot someone… on the plane?"

"She had a gun pressed to the window it was shoot her or everyone on the plane would have died." Kat defends herself.

"Why did you even have a gun on the plane?" Rick asks.

"I was going to check it, but they boarded us without checking our luggage. I told them I had it they didn't care. It was just before Seattle was bombed. I think they were just trying to evacuate who they could."

"Anyone else?"

"No." Kat shakes her head. The Takers had forced her to become very good at killing the living, something she hated with a passion.

"Alright then, we should head back." Rick nods giving her a soft smile. Kat moves forward stabbing Eddie in the head so he wouldn't turn and grabbing her gun slipping it into its holster she walks over to them staying a few feet back.

"What' yer name?" Daryl asks.

"Katrina Reid, most people call me Kat."

"It's good to meet you, Kat." Rick smiles at her leading them through the trees. Glenn walks beside Rick, Daryl standing a few feet away from Kat behind them; he keeps glancing at her bow and bags curiously. After around ten minutes they exit the trees coming onto a simple road leading to a prison. Kat stops for a second taking it in, walkers where lined up around the fenced in yard pressing at the metal. It was perfect, built to keep people in, it was perfect for keeping walkers out.

"You comin'?" Daryl turns to look at her. She nods following behind him. The three men break into a sprint as they approach the front gate, metal doors had been rigged attached to the outer layer of fences, wooden spikes flanked the gate to help keep walkers away. A boy rushes over pulling a rope to open the gate as the four of them sprint inside. The gate clinging closed behind them. He opens the inner fence running up to Rick hugging him.

"Dad! Who's the new lady?" He asks peering around Rick to look at her, his long brown hair falling in his eyes. He couldn't be older then thirteen.

"Carl, this is Kat. Kat this is my son, Carl." Rick introduces them with a large grin.

"Uh, hi." Kat waves at the kid awkwardly.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to Carol, she'll know where you'll be staying." Glenn offers motioning her to follow him. Kat nods slipping past Rick and Carl as Carl starts bombarding him with questions about her. Daryl follows silently behind her. Kat can hear people talking and laughing as they make their way up the road to another set of gates that stand open. Breathing in the smell of cooking meat reaches her. People are lined up getting food from a few women who stand by some kind of makeshift grill. "Dinner time." Glenn grins leading her to one of the women passing out food.

"Hi, Glenn, Daryl." The woman nods to them. She was older maybe late forties early fifties. She had short gray hair, and a very slim frame.

"Hey, Carol. This is Kat, we found her in the forest, she's joining us." Glenn introduces her, giving Carol the simplified version, although based on the look shared between the two Kat was sure the whole story would be told later.

"Welcome to the prison, Kat. Why don't you have some food and when your done I can show you around. Glenn would you ask Maggie to get Karen to set up a cell for Kat?"

"Sure thing." Glenn takes his plate and walks off towards a table where a woman with shoulder length brown hair, a teen girl with long blonde hair, and an old man with a white beard sat. She watches as he kisses the brunette before sitting down.

"Here you go." Carol gives her a kind smile holding out a plate. Kat stares at it for a second before slowly taking it, she was sure she made a sight staring at the food the way she was. But it'd been months since she'd had a hot meal.

"Kat you can sit with us." Kat turns as Carl runs up Rick walking behind him. Carl grabs a plate for himself and his Dad heading to the same table Glenn was at. Rick motions her to follow, Daryl taking a plate and following as well. "Guys this is Kat." Carl says looking excited.

"Welcome, I'm Hershel, these are my daughters Maggie," The old man motions to the brunette, "and Beth." He nods to the blonde girl.

"Hi." Kat says, slowly sitting down next to Maggie. Rick, Carl and Daryl sit across from her beside Hershel.

"Where are you from?" Carl asks her curiously. "Dad says you were on a plane when everything started." Kat looks between the group of people her mouth dry. It'd been months since she'd been around so many people… or so many people who weren't trying to kill her at least.

"Leave her alone, Carl." Beth says shooting him a look. "Let her eat." Beth shoots her a small smile. Kat smiles hesitantly back. She picks up her fork taking a bite of the meat, it was deer, she'd only had it once before when Tom had shot one and brought it back to the house their group had been hauled up in at the time. Carol had seasoned it with salt, pepper, and garlic. Kat smiles eating the rest slowly, knowing if she eat as quickly as she wanted she'd probably be sick. She'd learned that the hard way a few weeks before.

Kat sat silently while she eat and the rest of the people around her talked. The conversation flowed freely until the soft cry of a baby cut Rick off. Kat's eyes widen as she turns to see Beth pick a small baby, only about a month or two old out a small bin she hadn't noticed next to the table.

"You have a baby?" She asks mouth open in shock.

"Rick's daughter, Judith." Beth says as she rocks the baby softly. "I'm gonna go change her." Beth says with a nod to Rick.

"I'll come she needs to eat still right?" Beth nods. Kat watches them go shaking her head. This day couldn't get much stranger if it tried.

"Beth takes care of Judith so Rick can go on runs and work around the prison." Maggie explains seeing the look on her face. "Most people react the same way to seeing her."

"Well considering making a lot of noise means death most of the time now days, it's not exactly common to see a living baby."

"The fences help with that, and Judith is pretty quiet." Glenn says with a smile.

"Can I ask where your from now?" Carl pipes up.

"Uh Las Vegas originally." Kat answers not sure why he cares so much.

"But you flew out of Seattle?" Glenn asks.

"I grew up in Vegas till I was six, then moved to DC with my brother it's where I was headed when the world went to shit. I moved to Seattle a few years ago." Kat explains.

"How'd you end up in Georgia?" Maggie asks.

"Plane ran out of fuel we had to land. We were supposed to refuel during a layover in Texas but the airport wouldn't respond."

"Damn. You still headed to DC?" Glenn asks.

"I was trying to, but I kept going in circles without a map." Kat shrugs. "I'm pretty positive I won't make it there alone, so I guess I'm here for the time being at least."

"Well I hope you choose to stay, it's too dangerous out there to go it alone." Maggie smiles sadly at her. Kat smiles back before standing up with her empty plate. "Where do I take this?"

"To Carol." Carl points to where Carol is standing by a bin finishing up her own food. Kat nods and walks over to her.

"Thank you for the food, it was delicious." Kat places her plate and fork in the bin that is full of other dirty dishes. She hoped she didn't get assigned dish duty, she'd do it of course, but dishes had always been her most hated chore.

"No problem, Dear. I'll show you your cell and give you a tour." Carol places her now empty plate in the bin and leads Kat into a Cell Block marked D. "This is where all the new arrivals live. Those of us who founded the prison live in Cell Block C." Kat nods following her up some stairs to a cell against the back wall. The cell beside it is clearly vacant as well. "I thought you might want a cell by yourself. You can of course take one of the other empty ones."

"No this is fine, thank you." Kat smiles weakly at her. The cell has a sink, a bunk bed, and a few small shelves. A curtain is hung inside the door for privacy and some sheets, pillows, and what looks like toiletries sit on the bottom bunk.

"You can decorate or do whatever you want with the place." Kat steps in peeling her bags off her shoulders for the first time in a few days and sets them on the floor by the bed. She rolls her shoulders wincing at the tightness in them. "Hershel is our doctor, we also have Doctor S, so if you need anything looked at just come to me or one of them and we'll get you squared away. I'll show you the showers." Kat follows Carol out of the cellblock down a few halls into a large bathroom. There are showers lined up, separated by curtains, they had set up a few water barrels that pumped water into the shower pipes.

"Toilets are over there." Carol motions to a room. "You have to pump the water yourself, but it works pretty well. The waters clean we get it from the creek."

"This is amazing." Kat says looking it over. "I never thought I'd see running water again."

"We make do." Carol laughs. "If you have anything that needs washing just put it in the laundry basket in your cell, we'll wash it and put it back. We have some clothing stocked up if you need any as well."

"I'd love some clean clothes. All my stuff is beyond dirty at this point." Kat says following Carol to a supply room. She quickly picks out a few tank tops and t-shirts, a few pairs of jeans, a few flannels, a package of socks, a few bras, and a package of underwear. "You guys raided a clothing store didn't you?"

"A few weeks ago." Carol laughs. "Welcome to the prison, Kat. I hope you like it here." Carol pats her arm keeping a straight face when Kat flinches away. Kat's cheeks burn as she looks down.

"Thanks." Carol gives her a sad smile and leaves her to her own devices. Kat quickly makes her way back to her cell. She dumps most of her new clothes on the bed before grabbing the shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a towel and heading to the showers.

She pumps the water spending almost an hour under the cool stream. The water was far from warm, but it was good enough to get clean. She scrubbed her skin raw, wincing as she washed over the many bruises, cuts, and scrapes. She was relieved there wasn't a mirror for her to see her new scars with. After her shower she dresses quickly in her new clothes, opting for a t-shirt with a flannel over top, some jeans, and new undergarments. She laces back up her boots braiding her wet hair back before brushing her teeth and heading back to her cell. Kat dumps her dirty clothing in the basket a long with her hunting jacket.

"Wow, you look awesome!" Kat turns as Beth steps into her cell.

"Uh, thanks."

"I brought you some bins and a few things so you could organize your cell." Beth holds up a few storage bins that seem to have some more bedding and what looks to be a few knickknacks, some tape, and a packet of a disposable hooks like Kat used to use to hang Christmas decorations. Kat takes the bins setting them on the bed.

"Thank you."

"I'm in cell block C if you need anything." Beth smiles brightly at her before walking out. Kat turns to the bins moving them to the floor she starts emptying her very dirty bags, tossing any clothing into the laundry bin. She piles books, pictures, and other personal items on the bed setting her weapons on the lower shelf. She puts the bags in the bin as well to washed, although she'd probably wash them herself the next day.

Kat stands up making the bed. She stores her weapons in one of the bins sliding it under the head of bed. She hangs a hook beside the foot of the bed to hang her bow and quiver from. Her knife and gun staying on her belt for now. She slides the black box she keeps her electronics in under the bed and folds her remaining clothing into a bin. She puts her books on the shelves and tapes up a few of the pictures storing the rest in a bin with her jewelry, her many pairs of glasses, and a few other trinkets. She places her stuffed cat next to her pillow and looks around.

It was surreal she had a bedroom, an actual bed, pictures on a wall. Maybe she was settling in too quickly, trusting too easily. But did she really have a choice? They seemed nice enough, maybe a bit naïve just letting her in so easily, but maybe she could make a life here? At least until she was strong enough and prepared enough to head to DC? Or maybe even forever?

Kat steps out of the cell and closes the cell door seeing if it auto locked or not. The door opened easily at her pull. Okay she wouldn't get locked in, good. Kat steps back in the cell closing it and taking off her belt; she removes her gun holster and gun setting them on her bed and her knife holster and knife. She wraps the belt around the doorframe and a few bars into the door, buckling it so a walker wouldn't be able to push it open. Better safe than sorry. She closes the curtain moving her gun under her pillow, tossing the holster into the weapons bin and pinning the knife holster to her belt loop, she lies down. Kat hesitates before kicking off her boots, pulling a blanket over herself she takes off her glasses setting them on the closest shelf; she needed to remember to get a small table brought in for those.

It isn't long before Kat hears other people entering the cell block clearly heading to bed based on what they're saying. Kat closes her eyes letting her body relax into the mattress. She is out in minutes her exhaustion pushing her too deep to dream.

"The best wat to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." – Ernest Hemingway

-Line Break-

AN:

And with the post of Chapter Two I can now explain my chapter layout. In 'Season One' as I'm calling it all odd chapters are set at the start of Kat's story. All Evan chapters will be set starting between seasons 3 and 4 of walking dead and continuing from there. I don't know yet how many chapters will be in season one as that keeps changing. I will say when that changes and the chapter set up changes. A version of this explanation will be added to the start of each chapter from chapter 3 on. This chapter set up is largely why there will likely be two chapters a week.

I hope everyone enjoyed!

Review Policy:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please **no flames**. I am fine with **constructive criticism**; but please leave it in a **polite** manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to **improve**, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

Any kind of review that is nice even a Good Chapter or a smiley face is appreciated!

– Kat


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